The Flood Relief – where’s the money going, and who’s paying

With South Carolinians now engaged in cleanup and recover after the floods of early October, it’s worth examining government’s role in the effort. We all hope that the right money gets to the right people, but we’ve been around long enough to know sometimes that doesn’t happen.

So last week, our policy team went to work analyzing the agreement between South Carolina and the federal government whereby federal funds would be used for disaster relief. What we found got our attention. The agreement isn’t available to the public, it’s a bureaucratic mess, and South Carolina taxpayers are going to wind up paying a giant part of the tab. Actually, though, the state can and should use state reserve funds for disasters like this, and not rely on a federal government that’s $19 trillion in debt.

Meanwhile, The Nerve’s Ron Aiken came up with a shocking and important story on Monday. It seems a couple of public officials tried – and they almost succeeded – to get a local council to pay a million dollars for a disaster relief scheme that had virtually nothing to do with disaster relief.

As the 2016 legislative session grows nearer, you can bet that lawmakers will use the damage to state roads caused by flooding as a reason why they “have” to raise your taxes. It may be worth remembering why a tax hike won’t fix anything — namely because our road funding system is a giant mess run by a few powerful lawmakers with no statewide accountability. If you need a refresher course, click here and spend a few minutes browsing.

And we are making progress. We’re starting to see the mainstream media echo the conclusions we’ve drawn about our backward and unaccountable road funding system. If you haven’t seen it already, take a look at this report in The State. It’s a well done piece all around.